ArohaFest Diwali Edition

Canadian-born dancer and choreographer, Anjali Patil, has been trained in India under renowned masters of Kathak Classical Indian dance. She is the founder and artistic director of Aroha Fine Arts, one of only a handful of organizations working in the professional Kathak dance milieu.

Anjali has performed her works at noteworthy events – from the Canada Dance Festival to Delhi International Arts Festival, the Junos to International Film Festival of India. A sought after teacher and coach, Anjali teaches in Ottawa, Toronto, India and the Middle East. She was invited as a guest lecturer at the Dance Department of Hyderabad University in India in 2018 and as a panelist at a dance seminar presented by National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai, India, in 2019.

In addition to her artistic pursuits, Anjali has a long history in the public sector and cultural policy as an employee of the Department of Canadian Heritage. She holds an M.A. in Public Administration from Carleton University and B.Comm. from University of Ottawa. She launched the annual ArohaFest – Canada’s first bilingual festival celebrating the arts of India in Canada to honour Canada’s 150th birthday.

Recently, she worked on an international project for award-winning Canadian director Atom Egoyan. She is a recipient of the Corel Endowment for the Arts Award from the Ottawa Arts Council, Chalmers Performing Arts Award, Shastri Indo-Canadian Senior Arts Fellowship and was featured in a Kathak documentary produced by Doordarshan TV India. Anjali has been featured in the Foreign Affairs publication Canada & South Asia: Partners for the New Century. Anjali is regularly featured in media and is actively keeping the classical Indian dance scene thriving in Ottawa and beyond. 

Geoffrey Dollar is a graduate from the School of Dance Contemporary Dance Diploma Programme. Since graduating in 2016 he has remained an active member of Ottawa’s growing dance community. He has worked with many organizations and artists such as Ottawa Dance Directive, NAC Dance, Canada Dance Festival, The University of Ottawa Theatre Department, Propeller Dance, Aroha Fine Arts, Upasana: The Spirit of Dance, the Ottawa International Salsa Convention, Sinha Danse (Montreal), MASC (Multicultural Arts for Schools and Communities), FESFO (Fédération de la jeunesse franco-ontarienne), the National Center for Dance Therapy with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens as well as the CEAO (Centre d’excéllence artistique de l’Ontario) at De-La-Salle High School. He has performed and choreographed in Ottawa and Toronto for festivals and events such as New Blue Emerging Dance Festival, The 6th annual HUM TV Awards, Series Dance 10: Floorplay, to name a few.

He aims to bridge gaps between various performing arts communities by creating and engaging with work which creates a sense of collaboration and unity. His work as an educator and arts administrator has allowed him to perform outreach within various communities in the hopes of spreading his vision of dance as well as his love of the performing arts. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Mr. Dollar has familiarized himself with video production and editing to continue to serve and support the communities and organizations with which he is working.

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Shweta Subram is a Canadian vocalist who focuses on Hindustani and Carnatic music styles. She started her career with a performance at the prestigious IIFA Awards in Toronto alongside Bollywood music directors Salim-Sulaiman. Following this, Shweta has embarked on a progressive journey with her singles and musical collaborations. She became a Bollywood playback singer with the movie Hawaizaada, where she debuted with the Indian actor-musician Ayushmann Khurrana. Her debut in Bollywood came with the song Mella Mella with the Tamil music director Ghibran. She has also collaborated with famous American musicians, The Piano Guys for the song “Khushnuma” which has received over 21 million views on YouTube and has lent her voice to the recently trending “Jalebi Baby” track by Tesher, with 17 million views on YouTube. Shweta's songs have also been featured in a Netflix documentary on the Indo-Canadian actress Sunny Leone, “Simply Sunny”. She is the youngest vocalist of Indian origin to have performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and honored Indian and Canadian Prime Ministers by rendering national anthems of both countries during a grand reception with both heads of state.

For her performance during this edition of our festival, Shweta will be accompanied by duo-arrangers Yash Bhojwani and Yuvraj Vyas, popularly known as Y&Y Jams and based out of Bhopal, India. They admire musical diversity from the West as well as the deep classical music of India and believe that music can change the world. Supporting them is Krutarth Shitut, a tabla visharad, proud representative of his university at the national level, and popular Youtuber known as Tabla 256 from Gujarat, India, as well as Aman Dembla, a passionate audio engineer with 7 years of experience who’s always experimenting with new ideas of production. He produces beats, complete songs, sample packs, MIDI Packs, Mix & Master EPs, and Albums.

Joe Thottungal was born in South India. He received his Hotel Management and Catering diploma from a culinary institute in nearby Madras. His career began at the five star property of Leela Kempinski in Mumbai, before moving to Saudi Arabia to further advance his career. In 1998, Joe immigrated to Canada. He started his Canadian culinary journey in Toronto, then he moved to Windsor before arriving in Ottawa where he accepted an opportunity to work at the Crowne Plaza Hotel as a restaurant chef. He was quickly promoted to Executive Sous Chef. While working at the Crowne Plaza he completed his Chef de Cuisine certification from SAIT Calgary and became a Certified Chef de Cuisine in May 2003. His passion for cooking and serving guests gave birth to the Coconut Lagoon Restaurant. The Coconut Lagoon is the first of its kind in the nation’s capital. Joe opened his second restaurant Thali in downtown Ottawa in December 2018. Joe is active in the community and is a member of the Ottawa Chapter of Les Toques Blanches, and the CCFCC. He is always willing to lend a hand to different charity events like Bon Appétit Savor the Moment, Taste of Glebe, and the Can Go Afar Foundation. Il se devout à la cuisine Sud-Indienne au saveurs riches en cultures et en histoire, ainsi qu’au plaisir de tables partagés. He is devoted to South-Indian cuisine, as well as to its rich flavors which highlight culture, history, and shared culinary experiences.